Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is “very satisfied” with second place at the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix.
Verstappen was the highest-placed of six drivers who gambled on a soft-tyre start but couldn’t pass eventual race winner, George Russell and instead protected the threat of an overcut from McLaren’s Lando Norris with a stop on lap 20 whilst the Brit stayed out until lap 27.
That seven-lap gap meant that Norris was able to catch up to the rear of Verstappen by lap 46, but the tight nature of Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit meant that the reigning four-time champion clung on for a second-placed finish.
Verstappen however put his “difficult start” down to a lack of grip on his side of the grid hence his decision to go for the soft tyre in futile hope of getting a better launch off the line, yet he was more critical of his setup as he complained of downshift and balance issues throughout the race.
“The car wasn’t where we wanted in terms of the set up and it isn’t a mystery what went wrong but just need to analyse this later. The biggest problems were the downshifts and upshifts: this was giving me a lot of pushing in the braking which is not what you want on a street circuit and it was not easy to drive around the track.
“However, it didn’t matter as, even if the balance was perfect, it is hard to pass round here so I think second is the best result we could have achieved.
“I think my tyres were older for the final stint, so it was difficult to manage, but we were able to keep Lando behind which is what mattered.
Verstappen however was happy to see McLaren wrap up consecutive constructors’ titles which allows the Papaya to focus solely on the drivers’ title fight as Norris sits 22 points behind Oscar Piastri, whilst Verstappen is 63 points behind as he seeks an unlikely title comeback.
“Well done to McLaren on the Constructors’ Championship, they fully deserve that title, and I am very happy for them.”
With six rounds left including three sprint weekends, Verstappen is keen to keep improving on a “very satisfied” weekend which further highlighted where they can make improvements heading to Texas, USA, between 17-19 October.
“Overall, we can still be very satisfied with the weekend, Singapore is not our favourite layout and we maximised our result today. We do understand the car a lot better, we have definitely improved in the last few races, we just need to analyse and hopefully next weekend we can do a little better.”
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